Lindsey: All these videos talk about pregnancy myths. In this one, how there's no way to prevent pregnancy except abstinence, or here that pulling out the penis before it ejaculates is guaranteed parenthood, you can't get pregnant when you're bleeding, or if you're bleeding, you're not pregnant. If you thought any of these things, or the things that I'm about to share with you, I'm not mad at you. I am mad, but I'm mad because you weren't given the correct information. Until now!

[intro plays]

Ten conception misconceptions.

Number ten: men can't get pregnant. False. Since 2007 Thomas Beatie has been pregnant at least four times, once with triplets. He is legally male and his gender is male. Thomas was born a biosex female which means he has the reproductive anatomy needed to hold a pregnancy, like the many other trans men dads who give birth. Curious scientists are working on ways for biosex males without uteruses/uteri and biosex females without them to carry pregnancies too.

Nine: you shouldn't have sex while pregnant. No no! You should, unless your pregnancy has complications or your medical providers say you shouldn't. Sex has a lot of benefits, and anything you put in the vagina is going to be separated from the uterus by an amniotic sack and a mucous plug. Sex over here, baby over here.

Number eight: Humping is pumping. To those of you who are told that you need to have sex in order to enlarge the baby, like the baby is some sort of balloon and the penis is a pump: this is not true! Humping is not pumping! The embryo enlarges because the cells it's made of are dividing and dividing and dividing until it becomes millions and billions of cells!

Seven: birth control turns the pregnancy on and off. One of you shared that your high school classmate thought that birth control could stop/start pregnancy like a remote control i.e. "You start taking it at three months, you stay three months pregnant until you stop taking birth control, at which point the pregnancy can go into month 4, 5, etc." Hmm. Birth control, perhaps confusingly named, is primarily used to prevent pregnancies, but it can't pause an existing pregnancy or unpause it later.

Six: hugging leads to pregnancy. Don't believe this is something people actually believe? "I went to Catholic school and my family life/sex ed class started in 4th grade. One of the lessons was about how God made a man and a woman's bodies to fit perfectly together and that was why they could make babies. The picture shown in the textbook next to this lesson was a drawing of a man and a woman hugging. For several months I thought hugging cause pregnancy and was afraid to hug my male relatives." This is a myth, and so is...

Five: Using a tampon while in a relationship, going near a crotch, sleeping next to someone, swapping saliva, irregular periods, holding hands, swimming, and sitting on public benches can lead to pregnancy. People send me these explanations of pregnancy that they conjure up from inadequate education, it's as bad as storks and cabbage patches. This is not how babies are made, this video will tell you how babies are made.

Four: If you want a baby, you'll have a baby. This myth is harmful for at least two reasons. First because it suggests "I could magically impregnate my own self by will." The person who was given this myth as fact wrote "It made me fear that wanting a child could lead to teenage pregnancy." Here's the second reason this is a mess of a lie: millions of people want babies, but due to fertility, lack of resources, partners or donors, age, being human, you can't.

Three: You can't get pregnant the first time you have sex, but all other times... You can get pregnant the first time you have sex. You can get pregnant even if you jump up and down, pee after sex, turn a used condom inside out and use it, haven't started menarche, which is your first period, or if someone rapes you. I used to teach sex ed to pregnant and parenting teens. I was allowed to teach them because they're having sex as opposed to their peers who weren't? What I just listed are some of the ways they unsuccessfully prevented pregnancy, except the last one, that is a misconception politicians hold.

Two: douche with Mountain Dew. This one is my go-to when I want to illustrate the damage of abstinence only or medically inadequate "education." The believe is that pregnancy can be prevented by squirting a bottle of Mountain Dew into the vagina. The soda flushes out the vagina like a douche and the yellow dye number 5 kills the sperm. This may seem logical except douching of any kind is more likely to move the sperm toward the cervix and yellow dye number five may drop the sperm count but come on! There are around 350 million of them. And a third big concern: there's about a quarter of a cup of sugar in this bottle, that can cause a massive, itchy yeast infection.

Myth number one: No big deal, schools will teach our kids what's what. Probably not in the US. Our country is riddled with sexual shame, we don't know what to say, we don't know how to say it, and so people just make stuff up! Sure, I get it wrong all the time, but I try. I try really hard. Regardless of age, orientation, or degree of interest in pregnancy, you deserve to know anything you want to about sex, but especially the truth. Stay curious.

Can you subscribe so you know when our next video comes out? And if you have extra cash, only if you have extra cash, please boost our efforts on Patreon. I want to give people the sex education they deserve. You can give it to them too by sharing this video.